Plasma-Assisted Cu/PCN for the Reforming of CH4 and O2 into C2+ Liquid Chemicals

Direct partial oxidation of methane to value-added chemicals and fuels under mild conditions is the "holy grail" in chemistry. Nonthermal plasma is a mild means to activate methane molecules with high efficiency, but the active species are complex, resulting in low liquid product selectivity. In this paper, Cu-decorated polymer carbon nitride (Cu/PCN-X) was prepared by a facile impregnation-calcination method. Benefiting from the strong CH4 adsorption ability, the conversion of methane was 27.6% and the selectivity of liquid products was 63.4% when catalyzed by Cu/PCN-5 in a nonthermal plasma system. Among the liquid products, CH3CH2OH and C3H6O are the main C2+ oxygenates via the acid sites for C-C coupling, and their selectivity in liquid products comes to 32.9%, higher than the previous report (13.4%).